Are you getting enough sleep?

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October 25, 2013
| Updated: September 4, 2014 4:40pm

Infants do it a lot, children fight it a lot, teenagers crave it a lot, and adults simply wish for a lot.

We're talking sleep.

"Newborns sleep most of a 24-hour day, and that gradually decreases as they get older," said Dr. Puneet Patni, sleep medicine specialist with Kelsey-Seybold. "Around age 2, they transition from being asleep more to being awake more. As they get older, hours of sleep continue to decline."

Sleep is elusive for some, abundant for others. But how much of it do we actually need?

There are several mitigating factors when it comes to individual needs, but overall, toddlers should get 12-14 hours, preschoolers 11-13 hours, school-age children 10-11 hours, and adolescents eight to nine hours.

For the average adult, zzz's sit on a bell curve, Patni said. The widest portion, which includes most people, is seven to eight hours. On one end of the curve are people who need more, up to 10 hours; and on the other end of the curve are those who get by with six to seven hours.

But more than 50 percent of adults are not clocking enough nighttime hours, Patni said.

"There are a lot of people who get less and think that's all they need, but when given the opportunity to sleep more on the weekend or on vacation, they will," Patni said. "That's an indication they really need more than they're getting."

The effect of sleep deprivation is cumulative.

"Someone getting an hour or two less than they need every night declines more in function every day," Patni said. "They think they're functioning at 80 percent, but that's the first day of not enough sleep. The next day, it's 70 percent; the next day, it's 60 percent – but they always think they're at 80 percent."

Patni said standardized tests prove that's not the case.

"People have a poor perception on the impact of sleep deprivation on their everyday functions," he said.

It is possible to catch up on sleep, but only to some extent.

"Playing catch up won't completely make up for sleep loss," Patni said. "But it's better than not catching up on sleep at all."

Too much sleep can also be a problem, in that it may be an indicator of depression or a serious sleep disorder such as sleep apnea.

For more information about getting quality sleep and making sure your mattress is right for you, visit A Better Night's Sleep.